The gender-bending tap dance extraveganza Cleopatra: The Musical closes at San Francisco's Victoria Theatre Dec. 2. Performances of the Theatre Rhinoceros production began Nov. 2 with an opening Nov. 4.

The gender-bending tap dance extraveganza Cleopatra: The Musical closes at San Francisco's Victoria Theatre Dec. 2. Performances of the Theatre Rhinoceros production began Nov. 2 with an opening Nov. 4.

A song and dance parody of ancient Rome's greatest love triangle - Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony - Cleopatra casts men as the Queen of the Nile and emperor of Rome while a woman plays Caesar's best friend, Mark. The grand staging includes Cleopatra's entrance on her royal barge, the reincarnation of Caesar as a nine-year-old brat and the Roman senate breaking into a Cole Porter tune.

Fisher wrote and directed Oresteia, the Musical, Napoleon, the Camp Drag-Disco-Musical Extravaganza, Mary! (a musical based on Schiller's Mary Stuart), Combat! An American Melodrama and U.C., A Farce. Medea: The Musical is his best known work, however, with successful and award-winning productions staged in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.